Episode 203: What exactly IS Covid-19?

Spice:   0:01
Hello, everybody.

Salty:   0:02
Everybody. Welcome to the show The big show. The most exciting and important and critically acclaimed podcast that is recorded in our car. And today we are in the heh me. Now, why did I struggle with the word hammy?

Spice:   0:18
Because you only got halfway there, silly man.

Salty:   0:21
Mmm. We're in the studio today and we're gonna We're talking. We've got a mystery episode for you, mister. What is a mystery? Episode of mystery episode is what one host that would be me knows the the topic of conversation in the other host. That would be Spice has no idea what we're going to be talking about, what she's about to let loose a spout about it anyway because not knowing anything about the subject's going to be as never before never stopped her before. She

Spice:   0:51
has faith in my ability to run my mouth on any topic at the drop of a hat.

Salty:   0:55
That's right. We're gonna but actually on this topic, this is what they call in the industry. This one's a layup. OK, so today's topic area for its body is born ready. Ask the physiologist. What exactly is cove it 19. And how does it compare to other quote unquote flues and or slash viruses. How's that for a slam dunk?

Spice:   1:28
Almost a ziff. I've been reading about the topic lately. If you're a longtime listener to this show, you will

Salty:   1:36
man throw. I throw out one more more thing. This one is a listening optional podcast is about to get really technical. But she was pretty. Keep it civil. I was gonna keep it civil, but she's pretty good, is doing used to civil thing. But I'm just saying, this one is This was more of a technical type thing.

Spice:   1:56
It's not going to get his technical is it? Could Okay, so here's the deal. If you've been, if you're a longtime listener to the show, you'll be aware that, in my opinion, at least, a pandemic virus is the single. It was at the top of my risk factors for a serious disruption and well, yeah, that's better. Fact. We bought a lot of the equipment we've got four years ago because we saw this one coming. But here you go. You've got a bunch of viruses running around in animals. The animals species each have their own kinds of viruses. They carry him around. They don't cause those animals any more harm than a mild cold virus does to us. No symptoms are mild symptoms because the host and the virus or adapted to each other. But you've got that species living in close association with humans. So if one of the virus is in, one of the members of the other species gets a mutation that allows it to transfer easily to humans and also transfer between humans. You have what's called a zoonotic disease because it came from it was passed over from a different animal, and the virus comes into the new host, the human and the virus in the human or not adapted to each other. And it is a much uglier situation because the immune system of the human has never been exposed to this before. We do have a small number of white blood cells that will be able to attack it because we make some white blood cells for almost any contingency. But since there are no money so many options, you don't have very many cells that can react to anyone unknown target. So immune responses are delayed, and during that delay, the virus could breed itself up because it's very serious and, in fact, fatal outcomes. So this is one of those viruses. It was living in bats for a long time. It probably spent some time in a little Asian mammal. It's not very well known, called a penguin, but eventually one of the virus is in this Corona virus. Family mutated to a form that can infect humans, got over into the human population. It spreads among humans as a respiratory infection. So what this little guy is doing, it's a virus, which means it's got a protein coat. It's got some aura on the inside that codes for the few things the virus needs to replicate itself. And it's got a little lipid envelope around the outside. It's not a living thing. It's not actually alive. So what it does is it has little proteins on it that latch on to proteins on the surfaces of our cells. It injects It's our day into ourselves, and it programs ourselves to make more viruses, so that's what it's doing. It is hijacking the post cells and causing them to make new viruses, and then that starts to cause some kind some respiratory problems, and then the immune system notices this foreign particle in there and causing changes, and the immune system comes in and tries to wipe it out. And that causes more signs and symptoms, and eventually you have potentially fatal outcome. So how this looks when the virus gets into somebody, it mostly gets in through the respiratory tract. It's in the little tiny little droplets of flaming mucus that people cough out so one person coughs it out that gets inhaled by somebody else, and it starts infecting. Thesent ls that line there Airways, And then the immune system starts going after it. There'll be a period of usually 3 to 14 days where that virus is replicating itself and the immune system has noticed a little bit, and it started to attack. But there is no real symptoms yet because the response is it strong enough. After 10 days or so, the subject will usually start showing some symptoms. They'll get a little bit of dry cough and a fever, those of the most common. They might get some other signs and symptoms, but that's the immune system, starting to react to the damage that's being done to the respiratory tract. In about 80% of people who show symptoms, the immune system will get rid of it before it gets more serious in the other 20%. That virus will keep infecting, and it'll start to infect the lower airways down the lungs more. It will start calling, causing a lot of inflammation in the lungs. It'll cause a lot of damage to the lungs. About 15% of the people who show any symptoms at all from this thing will end up needing to go to a hospital with it and get at least oxygen supplied by nasal cannula. And about 5% of the people who develop any symptoms at all will end up getting such serious outcomes that they need to go on a ventilator with it or at least have have to go in intensive care. And some of those people need to be put on ventilators at that point. It's a pretty ugly situation because only about 12% of the people who go on ventilators with this thing or ever coming off alive in the other percentage of them, the immune system just get so violent trying to get rid of the virus and the virus is so hard to get rid of that there are fatal outcomes. So it's got exactly how high the fatality rate is is debatable. We don't call them cases unless they develop any symptoms. There might be a lot of asymptomatic transmission where the immune system gets rid of it without symptoms. Don't really know yet because we're not testing effectively for that yet. Once people show up with symptoms, they are a case about 80% of those cases. Oh, I had a tiny little coffin, a little bit of a sore throat, so I gotta swab. And I had the virus About 80% of those cases that people are gonna feel a little sick for a week or two, usually two weeks. But they won't need professional care. No, get over it. The other 20% is gonna be feeling bad enough and short of breath enough. They're going to see the medical people. They're gonna need to see the medical people for care. And there are some serious outcomes among that group. It is a little bit easier to transmit than influenza, but it transmits a little bit different influences are a different group of viruses, and with influenzas, it's mostly touching things and then touching yourself. This Ah cove in 19 does transmit that way, which is why all of the wash your hands messages are out there and why washing your hands is so effective because you can touch the thing with a virus on the surface and then you rub your face, you touch your food, you scratch an itch on, and I and you've got the virus in you. But Potvin is also better a transmitting in little air droplets. So somebody who's standing five feet from you is talking to you. You don't notice that tiny little droplets of their body fluids or coming your way, but they are, and you could pick him up by inhaling transmits better through asymptomatic people just standing there talking to you that normal flu's does. It's not as dangerous as SARS on a case by case basis. That's the most closely related virus most people are aware of. This actually is in the same family as the Stars virus that caused an epidemic a few years ago, but with the SARS epidemic, it was handled much more effectively in the early stages where every single person who was exposed to SARS was tracked down and watched, and a lot of them were put under isolation for a couple of weeks. It did not transmit in the asymptomatic form, So once people started showing any signs and symptoms, you jumped all over it and isolated him for two weeks. We got SARS stamp out, but this one transmits while it's asymptomatic. It got away, and we aren't even pretending to try and follow cases and transmissions anymore, which is the effective way to stop it. So, honestly, we've got no really good tool for stopping this social isolation can slow it, but it generally can't stop it without the case tracking. And that's probably never gonna happen because there are too many cases out there to do. You go to the CDC website, they'll tell you. Oh, yeah, we have 100,000 cases under investigation. They're not investigating those that couldn't possibly They don't have the manpower. The person power Hong Kong and South Korea corral transmissions early by tracing down every case, and we're not gonna be able to do that. So we're using shows social distancing to keep the spread slow enough to give us time to get vaccines, mostly to give us time to not overwhelm the health care system. With that 5% of people who need intensive care to try and keep it away from the people who are most vulnerable and to give us time to figure out how to treat it most effectively, that's where we are as we do this podcast at the end of March 2020 Was there anything else you thought they might like to hear? Salty?

Salty:   11:54
Yes, I have questions.

Spice:   11:56
I have answers maybe

Salty:   11:59
first and my right when I learned what I read that the name Cove in 19 is kind of a short for the Corona virus that became prevalent in 2000 and 19.

Spice:   12:17
Corona virus induced disease, first diagnosed in 2019 Right Cove in 19. The official name of the virus is actually SARS to 2019 because it's in the same family as wth e. Since ideologue uh, acute respiratory distress virus we called SARS. That one with stars one. This is a close relative. Its stars, two stars to 2019 is actually the official name of the virus. But we call the disease covert 19

Salty:   12:50
right? The reason I bring this up is people originally there have been calling it Corona virus, which is true. It is. That's the

Spice:   12:58
family it's in. All of the virus is in that family. Have a bunch of little. If you look at him under an electron microscope, it looks kind of like they're wearing a crown

Salty:   13:07
now, one of the one of the things that that's been floating around the Internet, which was one of the stupidest means I'd like to throw out there. That is just not true is that if you look at some veterinary met medicines, they say they are. They're basically a vaccine for Corona virus. Yeah, it's not this.

Spice:   13:31
And if you look at Lysol, if the package has said for years, works on grown a virus, Well, yeah, guys, cold viruses are also in the Corona virus family. Ah, some of the more serious ones, like stars and murders were, too, but that's just coincidental because they didn't go very far. There's a lot of very common viruses in the Corona virus family that infect a lot of different species, and this is one of that member. But saying that it's a Corona virus is kind of like saying a human being is a mammal. Yeah, it is a mammal, and there are lots of other mammals, and the characteristics of those mammals are different enough that protection against one is not protection against another. Try a mousetrap on a tiger.

Salty:   14:19
Yeah, exactly, or comparing a human being to a whale.

Spice:   14:24
The good news is we know something about Corona viruses in general, which is things like, Hey, they really don't like soap and water. A couple of the common anti sanitizers don't work really well against Corona viruses, but alcohol gel works great. And, ah, lot of the other common ones work great, and soap and water works great. So we know some things that work well against it, and we've got a step up on vaccine protection for it because it is of a family, we know. But it is different enough that the immune system that protects against one does not effectively protect against another. So the vaccines for veterinary Corona virus is not a thing. The, um, other kinds of treatments that just kill all Corona viruses will work, but the vaccines won't A lot of the Corona viruses that have been floating around for years in the human population causing colds. They're not the same thing as covert 19. They're just in the same basic room.

Salty:   15:32
Okay, um, if you have what is the one thing a person? Us. I don't want to get this disease. What is the one thing that will help prevent somebody from getting this disease more than anything else you could possibly? D'oh!

Spice:   15:49
It's got to be a pair. A closely related pair. Okay, You don't breathe air that has recently been breathed by anybody with it. And if you touch anything that has been in the vicinity of anybody with it, uh, really, to an extent in the past several days because it can live on some surfaces for several days, you make sure you get your hands clean before you handle your food or touch your face. This is not a new message. A lot of people are pushing it right now, but it is the answer to that question.

Salty:   16:26
I have considered starting to where gloves and no gloves and just wearing clothes will do absolutely nothing to prevent the disease spread or very, very, very little. I get that. But I've been considering starting to wear gloves for one reason, and one reason only is I tend to touch my face. And I think maybe wearing glows might remind me. Don't do that.

Spice:   16:53
It kind of depends. I've seen a lot of people new toe wearing gloves, um, put him on to work for the first time. Many of those people still touch their face a lot when they're wearing the gloves. In fact, I spend a lot of time telling people while the gloves are on the gloves, do not touch this or that thing in one of those things. They don't touches your face. So as a general rule, you just stick a pair of gloves on a person. It's not very effective for keeping them from touching their faces. People who have worn gloves in lab for a long time is part of their work habits to keep from coming in contact with nasty things are much more likely to have the habit of when the gloves air on the hands, don't go to the face, and I wear them sometimes for that reason, because I've spent years training myself. When the gloves air on you don't touch your face. You're very thoughtful about everywhere. You put your hands while the gloves are on. So that's an ingrained habit in me.

Salty:   17:52
Okay, Good thought. Now let's say the one thing everybody is gonna have to do. Well, everybody who were not just flat living the next, however many months off there perhaps is gonna D'oh is go to the grocery store. If you don't do anything else, you're gonna go to the grocery store. Chances are you're gonna go to the pharmacy if you have any need to do that, those were a couple places you're going to be going. Any thoughts about how to not catch Corona virus at the car she store,

Spice:   18:21
go with the times when the places are released, Populated? I I went to a grocery store last week, which is kind of ironic because I had absolutely zero need to buy groceries and didn't need to buy anything for myself. Our town has a buy and deliver groceries for people who shouldn't be out in public right now. Program and I was shopping for one of my community members

Salty:   18:44
community service type

Spice:   18:45
Yeah, touching the groceries and handling the groceries and all that. You can just wipe down the groceries with the an alcohol wipe after you get back and you're okay. That wasn't a big risk, but it's really difficult to move around a grocery store without getting close to people. And I actually turned around and moved the other way once because I was following a woman about six foot back. She stopped to pick up some stuff and she coughed and I'm like, I'm out. I turned around. I went back. But it was impossible to go through that entire store without getting within breathing distance of other human beings. That will be less if you go a time of day when there are the least other human beings in there. And if when you go to check out, pick somebody who looks vibrant, healthy that day, frankly, because you don't shed nearly as much virus until you feel sick, you do spread its own, but you don't spread nearly as much until you actually feel sick. So if they look tired or under the weather, go to the next line.

Salty:   19:50
I was in a grocery store this weekend, Could I really? Actually, we just giving me time to pick up some stop. And there was another woman and I and we were standing there in the isle were good 678 feet apart. And we're watching people in the aisle of the Iowa is packed with people, and I mean literally walking within a foot or two, each other bumping up against each other. We just can't look each other. We're both shaking our heads like No. Yeah. No, I'm not going into that. Just

Spice:   20:27
you'd still get some of their air five minutes later, though.

Salty:   20:30
I know we didn't. I think that I'll I skip the little Yeah, it's just No.

Spice:   20:37
So, yeah, the tiny little droplets will stay airborne for a while and you could pick him up for a while. That's that's part of it.

Salty:   20:43
How about a mask?

Spice:   20:45
Masks, Uh, and the n 95 actually prevent the viral particles from coming in, But most people don't have them, and they're hard to breathe through. Surgical masks reduce transmission.

Salty:   21:01
My people say I open up the sky. That way you'll see the eagle born.

Spice:   21:05
Yeah. There he is. White bull. Legal. Dudley.

Salty:   21:09
Sorry, We're just looking right. There was a shadow opened up this guy. Let's go.

Spice:   21:16
So it's It's actually, to be fair, we didn't have to go to the grocery store. We preferred to have fresh dairy products and didn't judge the risk to be high enough to keep us away at this point in time. But anyway, uh, yeah, surgical masks will reduce viral particle because it'll stop the bigger droplets. They won't stop it because they don't find enough. We've to stop it. They do put you It's somewhat higher risk of other respiratory infections because they increase the humidity and stuff of the area of the air you're breathing. So they actually

Salty:   21:50
is. If you breathe, have him on all day.

Spice:   21:53
Yeah, because some people were doing that, actually, and it was noticed that it was a problem. Surgical masks on the cloth masks that people are sewing or distinctly better than nothing, but they are not complete respiratory protection. The n 95 czar,

Salty:   22:12
assuming you don't have a beard like me.

Spice:   22:15
Yeah, because then they don't make a good face. Feel

Salty:   22:17
well, they're still better than nothing.

Spice:   22:19
I have a lot better than nothing in that case.

Salty:   22:22
Um, okay, now we were working. I'm kind of in a quandary is like, Is it worth the risk at this point in time? In southern Iowa, where there's not been very many cases reported very rare, few

Spice:   22:36
in the rural parts here they

Salty:   22:37
don't have many. Yeah. Is it worth stopping and picking up my favorite brand of cottage cheese? And if so, is it better to pick it up? It's center bill.

Spice:   22:48
It would be better to pick it up in misery.

Salty:   22:51
I don't wait through and where

Spice:   22:53
in Missouri? Lancaster. Maybe

Salty:   22:55
if

Spice:   22:56
if they have it, they might not

Salty:   22:58
at the sea store

Spice:   23:00
at this point, generally the smallest town, the better because it's defusing from the big cities out. Mostly, that's a call you'll have to make for yourself. But you know, that's the general trend of things thesis. More town groceries are, at this point in time, safer than the big towns, because more people come in contact in big

Salty:   23:23
pounds. I know that Thea, like the Bloomfield grocery store if we were to stop there would be a lot less busy than the Centerville. So I know. Is it worth it? Gets kind of cheese. I like risking your life.

Spice:   23:39
Your big boy. You can decide

Salty:   23:41
for cottage cheese, but

Spice:   23:43
not risking your life very much. And now he's looking all the Yeah, so it looks like you're gonna have some birds. Take pictures of Will I go for my walk today? We're getting near the lake now, and dozen eagles. So that is the characteristics of the virus. Did you have any other questions you thought they might like to hear about?

Salty:   24:07
Um, best gas says how long this is gonna burn.

Spice:   24:16
Well, my answer to that one is I really don't know.

Salty:   24:20
And nobody else does either.

Spice:   24:21
And nobody else does, either, because we don't know about mutations. We don't know how effective the social distancing is actually being in slowing progression through communities because it hasn't had as much effect so far as had been hoped where they did it with chasing down every case, it's been hugely effective where they've done it like Italy, without being able to chase down every case. It's not showing the outcomes would hope so far. But it's too early to be certain because it's barely over when they expect, start seeing the effects So will there be another round in the fall? Will it cool down a little bit in the summer when it gets hotter and drier? Maybe, but we don't know. Will there be another round in the fall? Quite potentially. Will it be something that starts circulating and every good buddy gets exposed to eventually. But we handled it at a slower rate, so it's less catastrophic. That's also a possibility.

Salty:   25:22
Well, will there be a vaccine? Because this is one. This is this end isn't like some of the visit isn't like AIDS, which is really complicated. We have vaccines in this family age was kind of out of blue, which made it Royer

Spice:   25:37
uh, AIDS swaps its surface proteins enough that we've got half a dozen vaccines for a bit, but

Salty:   25:44
it took a long time,

Spice:   25:46
but it just mutated away from the 1st 6 acting vaccines we made is the problem. Will cove it 19 do that? It doesn't seem to be a cz. Bad about that is some viruses.

Salty:   25:57
1918 was bad. What was that? It mutated so many times, just mutated to something that is just really bad.

Spice:   26:06
Have already tried a virus trial but it's a very new kind of vaccine, and they don't know if it's gonna work yet. It's a well, theoretically, this might work and we can try it right away. So they're trying it, but they don't know, and it'll be a while before they know. And even if it works, great folks, it's gonna be at least another year. I think before they can produce in quantity, because producing mass quantity of reliable vaccines is just not easy and not many places could do it. It's not something you can crank up a unsuitable place to vaccine production in a hurry. It's gonna be a while, I think so. I think we're in it for the long run. I think we're in a fairly hot phase all summer Long would be my best guess, but I'm not putting a lot of confidence in that Guests. I am putting a lot of confidence in the fact there's a lot of birds out there.

Salty:   26:57
Yes, but they're not Pelicans know they're not their goals. A lot of goals. We're at the lake that

Spice:   27:04
we have arrived at the lake and have started looking for birds. I'm about done here anyway But not only do I not know the reason I don't know it because I've been reading the best experts I could find And the people who are honest about it or admitting they don't really know either. So no Good answer that

Salty:   27:25
I'm not seeing pelicans.

Spice:   27:27
I'm not sure we signed this all.

Salty:   27:29
Yes. We're going to sign this up. Yeah, where I see G's. I see it's worth being here, but I'm not seeing publican jet. Okay, well, circulator but by

Spice:   27:39
but